Falling into the category of better late than never, Griffin Technology today announced that it is shipping FireWave, its affordable 5.1 surround sound solution for Mac. FireWave is a small, portable external device that adds Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Pro Logic II to your Mac. The device gets its power through its FireWire connection to the computer, and features an extra FireWire port so you can daisy chain other devices through it. FireWave has 3.5mm outputs for left/right, center/subwoofer and left/right surround speakers. It supplies line-level output, so it's suitable for connecting to an amplified multi-channel speaker system or to an amplifier or receiver that uses discrete surround inputs. The Griffin FireWave is priced at $99.99.

1. Older minis without optical out and you want surround sound.
2. You have analog surround sound speakers.

But to connect the intel mac mini to the firewave and then to a receiver... there is no real benefit, but thats not its real purpose imo.

If I connect the Intel Mac Mini's optical out directly to the 5.1 receiver's optical in, I will get 5.1 digital output, right ? You can tell that I don't currently own a Mac Mini, but I am considering...

If I connect the Intel Mac Mini's optical out directly to the 5.1 receiver's optical in, I will get 5.1 digital output, right ? You can tell that I don't currently own a Mac Mini, but I am considering...

Yes, assuming that your 5.1 receiver has dolby digital/dts to do the decoding. Thats how I have my current setup, it plays my dvd movies just fine. My only gripe, divx/xvid encoded with ac3 doesn't output in 5.1 using quicktime/frontrow, using VLC player will allow 5.1 though.

Does the optical out from a mini allow you to control the volume through the OS volume control or does the volume have to be controlled at the amp?

With the firewire out you may be able to use the mini as a pre-amp.

I also believe the firewire will allow a user to output to an amp simultaneously. Therefore you could have a set of computer speakers hooked up and also output to an amp. I don't think you will have to select the output via option by go this way. From what I understand iTunes for example does not support simultaneous output through analog and optical. If you have a PowerMac with multiple output this is a bonus.

The real benefit to this system is that it supports computer speakers that have the multiple jacks. Not very many computer speakers have optical inputs. So this allows you to use your Mini for 5.1 thru a 5.1 computer speaker package.

Yes you can also get y-splitter cables of headphone-to-rca jacks to input into a receiver (especially handy if your receiver is old). But if you have a modern receiver you will want to use the optical output.

Optical output is better, because optical cable is immune to RF interference and is a digital connection. The FireWave is digital from the computer to the device, but then goes into analog when you connect via the jacks.

Bandit Bill wrote:

Question:

Does the optical out from a mini allow you to control the volume through the OS volume control or does the volume have to be controlled at the amp?

With the firewire out you may be able to use the mini as a pre-amp.

I also believe the firewire will allow a user to output to an amp simultaneously. Therefore you could have a set of computer speakers hooked up and also output to an amp. I don't think you will have to select the output via option by go this way. From what I understand iTunes for example does not support simultaneous output through analog and optical. If you have a PowerMac with multiple output this is a bonus.

When you go thru the optical on a Mac, the system volume is fixed. So you can either control the volume thru the amp or thru the application you are using.

If you want to use the FireWave to connect to computer speakers, then the optical to an amp/receiverr at the same time. You can do easy switching between your outputs by using this program, SoundSource. It is put into your menu bar and lets you pick your audio out thru a drop down menu. This saves time from having to go to System Preferences.

This is a decent design. As it has two FireWire ports for daisy-chaining.

But if you have a PPC Mac mini and want an 5.1 optical out, then get a M-Audio Transit._________________